Eventide
by ncfan
Summary: Sakura knew Naruto would hate her for it, but she couldn't regret it.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

"Hello…It's…been a while, Sasuke."

The shelter was nothing more than thatched straw supported by four vertical beams of wood and cross beams connected. It had once been a public way station, but was now abandoned.

She had changed. True, she hadn't gotten much taller, but her face was thinner, more firmly boned. Her bright green eyes had changed shape somewhat, and Sakura just didn't seem the same.

Sakura was noticing the same thing. Sasuke had gotten tall, very tall, towering over her and she was sure he would outstrip Naruto by at least three inches. His black eyes were dull with a wary knowledge of life and the two-faced gifts it made to humanity. He was scarred now, red to white ridges of skin stretching across his back and chest and arms, almost like the whip strokes of a cruel master. But then, Sasuke was his own master, and kindness wasn't something he was renowned for.

The rain fell soft and steady outside the shelter, neither too light nor too heavy, and distant thunder rumbled far off in the distance, far off to leave no hint of lightning. The sky was painted a deep blue gray, just barely light enough for Sasuke and Sakura to make out the features of the other's faces, for Sasuke to see alien strangeness and Sakura to see death.

Sasuke did not reply to her soft, almost stuttered words, and Sakura knew, and didn't care. He wasn't even tensing, wasn't even preparing for an attack, because he didn't think she'd hurt him, not even now. And Sakura _did_ care about that, as she stared down at her nails and grimaced.

Without a word, Sakura plopped down on the slightly damp grass, and began rooting through her pack. She didn't light a fire, thinking towards the future—the smoke would stain the air, in the wilderness the light would alert travelers from miles off.

As Sakura untied the strings on the food pack, Sasuke's voice struggled into life, disinterested and desperate all at the same time. "Where are they?"

Sakura stiffened. "Gone," she replied, just as tonelessly.

Kakashi and Naruto had gone, gone somewhere far away where the shadows didn't fall and darkness wouldn't find them, all because of _him_ and Sakura knew that wouldn't change until someone did something about it.

Her fingers nearly knotted untying cloth knots, and Sakura killed her indecision and finished, revealing dried meat and crackers growing stale. Hardly a feast, but her aching stomach responded as though it was and Sasuke's eyes sharpened just a little when they settled on the beef.

Sakura couldn't smile. "Will you eat?"

With a sinuous fluidness that wasn't grace and wasn't elegance, Sasuke sat across from her, just out of the range in which Sakura could easily slip a kunai between his ribs. He was thinking after all, and it was like him, Sakura had to admit.

Sasuke's dark eyes flickered as Sakura fumbled the water canteen, nearly dropping and spilling it. "Something on your mind?"

Green eyes changed shape again, and they became round and too large in her face, just as they had been in Sakura's genin days. Deep down, Sakura realized, she was doing it because she knew it disturbed him. And she enjoyed that.

Deep green sleeves fell away from Sakura's arms as she pushed her short hair out of her face. "Yes." She lifted her eyes to his face, and mentally traced a scar that stretched unseen from his heart to both of his eyes. "Do you…ever have trouble sleeping at night?"

Black eyes narrowed. "Fumewort is a powerful sedative. It helps."

Sakura nodded, as though it was the answer to all the questions; it wasn't. "I…thought so. I use chamomile. Do you ever regret anything, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's pale hands, the knuckles thick with knotted scars, tensed around his water canteen. His voice, slow and low, almost lulled Sakura into comfort. "Regret has become a liability to me. I stopped regretting anything a long time, Sakura."

His use of her name hurt her. Words couldn't even begin to explain how much it seared her, especially when Sakura knew that Sasuke had no right to touch her name, when Sasuke would have thrown away his own name, his own being, his own self to achieve his ends.

So softly, softly enough that Sasuke couldn't hear, Sakura whispered, "So did I." She stopped regretting anything when she saw the light die out of the eyes of the child who had died for his name, and sitting across from his killer, Sakura could hardly breathe.

"…And…do you still crave your revenge?"

Sasuke smirked, a pale, ugly thing. "Nothing else will sate me now." The Devil hovered over him as he spoke.

"Then why don't you kill me?"

The smirk faded, and the expressionless, almost lost face that had tormented Sakura for so long resurfaced. "I don't know."

A clap of thunder howled over their heads, and Sasuke stood, remembering all the things that made him what he was now. He looked down, and his eyes were empty as the cavity of Sakura's chest. "I will find him. You know that."

Sakura bit her lip. She tried desperately to find in her heart whatever love she had once had for him, to convince herself that there was another way to fix the situation, to solve the problem, that he could be saved—

—And found that she could not.

Sakura stood too. "Sasuke." Her voice was nearly a croak. "You…owe me something. After everything you've done, you owe me this much."

Sasuke didn't react as Sakura stepped forward, and snaked her arms around his chest, lying on his back. And all the while, Sasuke stood stock still, cold and stony as a marble statue.

And Sasuke only stiffened as the kunai Sakura had had up her billowing sleeve came into her hand and slid into Sasuke's skin, cutting through tissue and muscle, penetrating the spinal cord.

Sakura knew Naruto would hate her for it, but as Sasuke died in her arms, Sakura couldn't regret it.

As she lowered him onto the ground, Sasuke's eyes were filled with a single question, _Why?_

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," she whispered. "You should have known better."


End file.
